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Skywalk to CityPlace? Why not a tunnel.

The Palm Beach County Convention Center sits on a hill, and cars often don’t see jaywalkers until the last moment, neighbors say. Staff Photo by Gary Coronado/The Palm Beach Post

County staff recoil at the idea of building a skywalk across ten lanes of traffic between the Palm Beach County Convention Center and CityPlace.

Because it wasn’t designed into the plans, it won’t work, they say. There’s no place to plop a large wheelchair ramp to make a two-story-high skywalk compliant with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. (An elevator wouldn’t suffice, because of the issue of power outages, they say.) Further, city leaders worry a skywalk would mar their amazing palm-lined vista.

But the new 400-bed convention center hotel that’s going to open soon may force the issue.

A rendering of how the hotel will look when completed. / The Related Cos.

Condominium owners who live in CityPlace South Tower next to the new hotel say it typically takes five minutes to cross Okeechobee legally, and most people aren’t willing to wait. Crossing requires pressing two different walk lights, and standing and waiting on a median in between. Nobody does it.

Ruth Kurtz, who lives in the tower year-round, was horrified recently as she watched a car on Okeechobee narrowly miss a jaywalker running with her children in a twin stroller.

“They don’t have the walk signal, but they go anyway,” she said.

Kurtz and her neighbors have gathered 1,500 signatures on petitions urging county commissioners to work with city, state and federal officials on a skywalk. But if a skywalk won’t work, are there no other options?

Nobody’s talking about a pedestrian tunnel or underpass — yet. But maybe they should.

The Convention Center sits on a hill about 25 feet above sea level. Over 40,000 cars a day speed by at around 40 miles per hour. An attractive tunnel, one filled with public art and good lighting, could become a showpiece. Here are a few other pedestrian tunnels that work. Would one work in West Palm Beach?

A tunnel could become a public art installation. A stunning pedestrian tunnel runs under a pond at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology.

Boulder, Colorado has around 75 pedestrian tunnels.

Most major intersections in downtown Moscow have pedestrian tunnels for safe crossings.